Folks on low income often do not have the luxury of being very selective in what they can eat. Their budget means they can usually buy once a pay cycle so food needs to be long lasting. Unfortunately a lot of the healthier options have short shelf life such as fresh veges and fruit. They buy what will last and what they can afford.

I don't believe that. It's about being educated about buying and preparing food and it does take some time. Fast food is and should be a luxury. In-season fresh and healthy food can be inexpensive but you have to know what you are doing. Countdown run a "Feed 4 for $15" promotion that is reasonably healthy (but does assume you have salt&pepper, milk, butter etc so is slightly underpriced). You can't eat dinner at Maccas for that little.

So many people these days have no clue as they were never shown by their own parents and listen to too many people who are saying it's excusable to live on junk because it's too hard and expensive to do otherwise.

Folks on low income often do not have the luxury of being very selective in what they can eat. Their budget means they can usually buy once a pay cycle so food needs to be long lasting. Unfortunately a lot of the healthier options have short shelf life such as fresh veges and fruit. They buy what will last and what they can afford.

Frozen vegetables are cheaper than fresh, last up to 12 months and are just as nutritious. Apples and oranges last ages as well.

You assume they can afford a freezer.

You're really grasping at straws now.

I spent over quarter of century dealing with this , I am not grasping at straws its reality.

MikeRetired IT Manager. The views stated in my posts are my personal views and not that of any other organisation.

Folks on low income often do not have the luxury of being very selective in what they can eat. Their budget means they can usually buy once a pay cycle so food needs to be long lasting. Unfortunately a lot of the healthier options have short shelf life such as fresh veges and fruit. They buy what will last and what they can afford.

I don't believe that. It's about being educated about buying and preparing food and it does take some time. Fast food is and should be a luxury. In-season fresh and healthy food can be inexpensive but you have to know what you are doing. Countdown run a "Feed 4 for $15" promotion that is reasonably healthy (but does assume you have salt&pepper, milk, butter etc so is slightly underpriced). You can't eat dinner at Maccas for that little.

So many people these days have no clue as they were never shown by their own parents and listen to too many people who are saying it's excusable to live on junk because it's too hard and expensive to do otherwise.

I disagree, I spend over 25 years dealing with this, helping folks budget, teaching them how to shop, etc etc . If you have $20 left after paying bills and rent/mortgage have no fridge or freezer or anywhere to grow your own(if you can afford to start that) the options available are very thin. A lot of the "fresh" produce is not that fresh and goes bad very quickly as it has spent often months in coolers. I have worked with families that could only afford to eat once a day and not every day. I would often buy food for them myself as I couldn't leave kids hungry.

Then there is the ability to cook, power is an expensive item and many just could not afford to use the oven and often had the power disconnected or had not funds to pay the power on the go.

It was not that these folks did not have a clue they simply don't have the resources.

MikeRetired IT Manager. The views stated in my posts are my personal views and not that of any other organisation.

The correlation with IQ (causal or not) doesn't explain the increasing epidemic.

I never said it did. I said IQ plays a part. Like many issues it is complicated and there are many factors at play. Some more important than others. I think the most important is what and how much you eat.

Sure. But I don't think that highlighting a correlation between IQ and obesity is useful. Overweight people face enough negative stereotyping already, and those probably tend to exacerbate issues they face.

Being clever doesn't necessarily guide you through "good choices" in what you eat either. As you say, it's complicated - there's no consensus on many issues, and a lot of outdated data in circulation, as well as crappy industry funded research. There's too much to take in / assess.